Election Commission
ECI ISSUES ‘VOLUNTARY CODE OF ETHICS’ FOR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS IN CONNECTION WITH ELECTIONS IN A NOTIFICATION
Kolkata, 25 March 2019
The Election Commission of India on Saturday  has issued a notification related to broadcast in connection with General Elections to the 17th Lok Sabha 2019 and State Legislative Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim in 2019.
The stated notifications mentions that All Internet websites and Social Media platforms must also comply with the provisions of The Information Technology Act, 2000 and ECI guidelines No-491/SM/2013/Communication, dt 25th October,2013, for all political content on their platform. As regards political advertisement, the same needs pre-certification by the Committees set up at State/District level as per the Commission's order No. 509/75/2004/JS-I, dt 15th April,2004.
Internet and Mobile Association of India  has also developed a “Voluntary Code of Ethics” for all the participating social media platforms to ensure free, fair & ethical usage of their platforms to maintain integrity of electoral process during the general elections to the Lok Sabha 2019 and Legislative Assemblies of four states and the bye-elections being held simultaneously. The relevant portion of “Voluntary Code of Ethics” dated 20th March, 2019 which has been formed for the benefit of all concerned social media platforms reads:
i. Participants will endeavour to, where appropriate and keeping in mind the principle of freedom of expression, deploy appropriate policies and processes to facilitate access to information regarding electoral matters on their products and/ or services.
ii. Participants will endeavour to voluntarily undertake information, education and communication campaigns to build awareness including electoral laws and other related instructions. Participants will also endeavour to impart training to the nodal officer at ECI on their products/ services, including mechanism for sending requests as per procedure established by law.
iii. Participants and the Election Commission of India  have developed a notification mechanism by which the ECI can notify the relevant platforms of potential violations of Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and other applicable electoral laws in accordance with procedures established by law. These valid legal orders will be acknowledged and/ or processed within 3 hours for violations reported under Section 126 as per the Sinha Committee recommendations. All other valid legal requests will be acted upon expeditiously by the Participants, based on the nature of reported violation.
iv. Participants are creating/opening a high priority dedicated reporting mechanism for the ECI and appoint dedicated person / teams during the period of General Elections to interface with and to exchange feedback as may assist with taking expeditious action upon receipt of such a lawful request, following due legal process, from the ECI.
v. Participants will provide a mechanism for relevant political advertisers, in accordance with their obligations under law, to submit pre-certificates issued by ECI and/ or Media Certification & Monitoring Committee  of the ECI in relation to election advertisements that feature names of political parties, candidates for the 2019 General Elections. Further, Participants shall expeditiously process/action paid political advertisements lawfully notified to Participants by the ECI that do not feature such certification.
vi. Participants will commit to facilitating transparency in paid political advertisements, including utilising their pre-existing labels/ disclosure technology for such advertisements.
vii. Participants will, pursuant to a valid request received from the ECI, via Internet and Mobile Association of India  provide an update on the measures taken by them to prevent abuse of their respective platforms.
viii. IAMAI will coordinate with the Participants on the steps carried out under this Code and IAMAI as well as Participants will be in constant communication with the ECI during the election period.